Henry Timms

Executive Director

Henry Timms is executive director of 92nd Street Y, the renowned cultural and community center. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y annually, and millions more participate in 92Y’s digital and online initiatives. Under Henry’s leadership, 92Y is re-imagining the role of the traditional community center, using innovative programming and new technology both locally and globally. Henry oversees the organization’s 40+ businesses, including critically-acclaimed performing and visual arts programs; a world-renowned series of talks and readings; a huge range of family and wellness programming; professional development opportunities; and more.

In 2012, Henry founded #GivingTuesday, which engages more than 10,000 partners in a global day of giving that was honored with a Cannes Lion at the International Festival of Creativity; the PRWeek Global Award for Nonprofit Campaign of the Year; and the inaugural UJA-Federation Riklis Prize in Agency Entrepreneurship. Henry also co-founded the annual Social Good Summit, which pioneered a new, inclusive summit model that opened up the critical discussions held during UN week to a much wider audience and led to concurrent gatherings around the world. As an extension of the Social Good Summit, Henry led the team that developed a MOOC (massive open online course) called “How to Change the World,” offered with Wesleyan University; 51,000 students participated in its first year.

Henry has inspired the organization to develop a range of other groundbreaking initiatives and partnerships, including the Campaign for the American Conversation with Harvard and Stanford universities, and with NYCEDC, the NYC Venture Fellows and NYC Fashion Fellows.

Henry is a practitioner in residence at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS), a faculty member of the GovLab Academy and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils. In 2014, Henry was named the NonProfit Times Influencer of the Year and in 2015, he was named one of Crain’s New York Business “40 Under 40” honorees. He is a member of several philanthropic committees, including the selection committee for the 2015 CECP Excellence Awards and the Lipman Prize Committee at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Henry serves on the board of the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA), where he is chair of the nominating committee for the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin Medal.

He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., and lives in New York City with his wife and two young children.